Peter Petricola goes the distance for Melbourne Cricket Club

Peter Petricola opens up on his long career with the Demons — and how a racial slur was the spur for him to play for the Italian national team.

Peter Petricola batting for Melbourne. He’s been doing it for 20 years. Picture: Andy Brownbill

It was the country round in the 2001-02 season.

Melbourne played Footscray at the North Ballarat Oval in the first game after Christmas.

Peter Petricola remembers the match for a few reasons.

First-class players Brad Hodge, Andrew McDonald, Warren Ayres and Shane Harwood, and future District/Premier 10,000-run batsmen Andrew Kent and Peter Dickson, played for the Demons.

Colin Miller played for the Dogs.

Ayres shimmied to a century for Melbourne, completing a set of hundreds for him against every club in the competition.

Ballarat boy Harwood, playing in front of his home crowd, let his first delivery of the game go at a furious pace. “About 190kmh, I reckon!’’ Petricola recalled. Harwood landed awkwardly and broke his leg as he bowled his second ball.

And it was Petricola’s debut in Melbourne’s First XI.

He batted in the middle-order and made seven before being run out in the rush for runs late in the innings.

Melbourne's Peter Petricola square drives at Dandenong. Picture: Jason Sammon

Twenty years on, Petricola – “Pepsi’’ in Premier Cricket circles – is still playing with the Demons, skippering the seconds, a wise old head surrounded by talented whippersnappers.

His loyalty to Melbourne is legendary.

“It’s a magical place,’’ he was saying on Wednesday as he reflected on his long association with the club.

“I’ve never wanted to be anywhere but Melbourne.’’

Petricola played 118 games in the firsts (the last of them two years ago) and many more in the seconds, when he was regularly squeezed out of the top team to accommodate players returning from state duty.

“It was pretty easy to accept when you’re making way for someone like Brad Hodge,’’ he said.

But there were times when he kept his place in the First XI and walked out on the field with the likes of McDonald, Hodge and Simon Cook.

He thinks he could assemble a team of Test cricketers that he played with at Melbourne.

For years Petricola took calls from other clubs offering him a permanent place in their First XIs. Cashed-up Sub-District clubs made contact too.

He was flattered – “It was nice they were thinking of me and wanting my services’’ – but never tempted to leave.

Peter Petricola tucks the new ball away in the 2016-17 grand final against Fitzroy Doncaster.

Petricola was thrilled when Ayres asked him to follow him to Dandenong 15 years ago. He said no.

“He said thanks, but no thanks,’’ Ayres recalled.

“I didn’t think he’d leave because he’s a Melbourne person, but it was worth asking him because he was a good player and a quality person.’’

Three things helped make Petricola a Melbourne mainstay. Before he joined the club, someone told him that if he played at Melbourne and got a game in the firsts, he could get a get at any club in Australia.

Petricola eventually figured state cricket was beyond him, so playing at such a strong club was the next best thing.

A year after he joined Melbourne, he was involved in a serious car accident. Lives were lost. He had to deal with physical and mental scars at the age of 18, and people involved at the Demons gave him unstinting support in his recovery.

He’s never forgotten it; it often came to him when other clubs made their approaches.

Friendships were a factor too, with teammates such as Ash Middlin, Kent, Nick Quinn and Pat Smith.

Petricola joined Kent and Middlin in Melbourne’s 2009-10 grand final team that defeated St Kilda on the back of Adam Dale’s dazzling haul of 6-44 off 38 overs, 19 of them maidens against batsmen of the quality of Robert Quiney, Peter Handscomb and Graeme Rummans.

That the Demons got to the last game of the season had a lot to do with their determined left-hander, Petricola.

In the semi-final against Carlton he dug in for 67 off 180 balls as Melbourne held on for a draw. He regards it as the most valuable innings he played in District/Premier Cricket.

“Definitely not the best or the prettiest, but definitely the most important,’’ he said.

Petricola also played in One-Day and T20 crowns, giving him a hat-trick of titles with the top team.

Peter Petricola with son Hugo.

There has been success in the Second XI too, much of it stemming from his batting. He’s lost count of the number of centuries he made in the seconds. Dickson thought it would be around 15 to 20. It’s 14, with three scores of 99 too.

Surprisingly, he never made a ton in the firsts.

He did make 99 against Casey South Melbourne in 2014-15, his quest for an overdue first century ending when he was bowled by Daniel Watson.

There were two other scores in the 90s. Ultimately he had to be satisfied with 10 half-centuries, including his vigil to block out the Blues.

Still, Petricola said he couldn’t complain about anything that had happened to him at Melbourne. He said the club was a big part of his life.

He had played in the Sub-District Hatch Shield for Ivanhoe and then for the Demons in the Dowling Shield, another prospect chased up by the club’s legendary recruiter Doug Patrick.

Picked in the Third XI for Round 1 of 2001-02, Petricola hit 42.

Picked in the Second XI in Round 2, he hit 99 not out – there’s that damn number again – against Casey South Melbourne.

The following week he cracked 108 against Melbourne University. Another century came to him against Ringwood before Christmas, prompting the selectors to give him that First XI debut against the Doggies at Ballarat.

The Ayres century, walking out with Hodge and co, Miller bowling his spin … it made for memories that stir him to this day.

Carl Sandri and Peter Petricola ahead of a series representing Italy.

It was a quick rise but the car accident checked his progress, keeping him out of the 2002-03 season.

He also missed a chunk of 2007-08, but for a more satisfying reason: he was off playing at international level.

Petricola is of Italian heritage – his father, Tony, came to Australia in the 1960s – and he was approached to play for Italy. He never gave it much thought.

The spur to do so came from a racial slur, directed to him on the field. He was upset and it made him wonder what his father had experienced as he made his way in a new country.

Questions and conversations led to an appreciation of his family’s origins.

Petricola was born and raised in Melbourne, but mightily proud to represent Italy.

During his qualification period he lived in Rome for six months and worked in cricket development. His first tour was to Ireland for the European championships.

He also played in Tanzania, Johannesburg, Bermuda, Jersey, the UK and Dubai.

“Unreal. Great fun,’’ he said.

“More than just giving me an opportunity to go overseas and play cricket around the world, which was obviously awesome, it helped me understand my father and where he came from,’’ Petricola said.

These days people who deal with Petricola in business – he works for construction company Multiplex – are surprised to find he has a Wikipedia page. He has a Cricinfo profile too, which makes him laugh.

But he’s more recognised for his longevity in Victorian Premier Cricket.

At 37, and no longer worrying about his place in the pecking order, he’s enjoying his cricket as much as ever, with the support of his wife, Felicity.

“I hope to be,’’ he said of the prospect of him being around for a while yet.

“I hope I’m still relevant and still required. When I feel like that time is up I’ll be more than happy to step aside.

“At the moment I’m loving it. Saturday morning I go to work for a couple of hours and then I duck off and as soon as I get to the cricket ground it’s a real release, especially with all these talented kids we’ve got playing.’’